A Mermaid's Tragic Game
by GintaxAlvissForever
Summary: [High School AU] Reyn was persuaded by his girlfriend to play this game that no one has been able to beat. There was a reason it was locked up in Pac-Man's old arcade though. They say there is a little mermaid in the game that cries for the player to beat the game. Rumor has it that the last person who completed the game had vanished...


**A Mermaid's Tragic Game**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Super Smash Brothers. That belongs to Nintendo. I also do not own Queen's Blade. That belongs to Hobby Japan.**

 **Summary: Reyn was persuaded by his girlfriend to play this game that no one has been able to beat. There was a reason it was locked up in Pac-Man's old arcade though. They say there is a little mermaid in the game that cries for the player to beat the game. Rumor has it that the last person who completed the game had vanished. Reyn never believed in superstition like this and decides to play the game unaware that he is this close to becoming the next victim.**

 **Pairing: Reyn/Arachne and one-sided Reyn/Tiina**

 **Rated: T (for teen)**

 **Genre: Tragedy, Supernatural, Horror, Angst and Drama**

 **Warning: Swearing, creepy themes and unintentional OOC**

 **Prompt from Tumblr (Admins °M° & Chamomile) and for the AUideas Advent Calendar "Glitching Through" AU. In this story, Reyn and Arachne are 18 and Shulk and Tiina are 17. Enjoy!**

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Reyn McElroy may not have been an expert on video games, but he sure as hell didn't want to look like a loser in front of his girlfriend. Arachne Nox was a very odd individual. The redhead was in denial that she was a spider demon. Her name gave it away, but only a few people saw her eyes when her bangs went flying. She had more than two eyes, but she had covered it up during the day to hide the fact that she was a demon. Reyn still wouldn't believe demons exist even if his girlfriend was the one thing he had a phobia of. Arachne proved to be a sweet girl and over time, Reyn had gotten over his fear of spiders because of her. It wouldn't stop her from pouncing on him causing his phobia to start up again.

Arachne's teasing knew no bound, but her demon knowledge was important to know because it allowed the Scottish male to figure out who he should be weary of. Just because Arachne was a demon though didn't mean she was aware of all the curses that were directly caused from demons. It was why she had provoked her boyfriend to play the arcade game in the back of Pac-Man's arcade. Pac-Man was an odd individual. He always wore the yellow dot costume around the arcade named after the character. People had joked it was the real Pac-Man, but no one would dare question him. He had a large collection of old-school arcade games for students to pass the time. There was one in the back of his room that he had told others not to play. If he caught you, he would ban you from entering the store at least for a month. It only made students want to play the machine more.

The game was an old school action game with some "choose your own adventure" sequences in it. You were guided by a random character through rooms. You would fight the monsters that plagued the room. Should you beat the game, your soul was apparently taken and you would become the new NPC until someone beat the game. It wasn't an easy game mind you, so you would be stuck in the arcade machine forever.

That sounded like a tale the upperclassmen would come up with to scare the younger students. Reyn was no coward, so he vowed to beat the game and prove the rumor was hogwash.

Reyn had to wait until after hours for Pac-Man to close the door. He was a very forgetful person and often made it easy for people to break in. Reyn went alone because he didn't want Arachne to be nagging him during the gameplay. He snickered when he found the dusty black machine in the back of the arcade. Because he was alone, the machine gave of a creepy vibe. The redhead forgot to swallow when he approached. He considered fleeing, but the machine wasn't going to let him.

"Please Start. No need for money."

Reyn jumped at the machine talking to him.

"W-Woah? It spoke to me?"

The pixel that showed up on the screen giggled at his nervousness. Reyn could see it was a beautiful blue haired mermaid with a blue fin to match. He felt like he had seen her face before at the school though.

" _Hee-hee, there's no need to be afraid. It's just you and me_." The mermaid spoke in a soft whisper. _"I need your help to fight through these monsters."_

Reyn had to collect himself before nodding his head. It was only the game reminding him that he needed to play. If Reyn was like Shulk though, he would have questioned why no money was required or why the NPC was guiding him to certain options in this multiple choice game.

Now the fighting portion was easy for Reyn. He was good at mashing the buttons, so the avatar that strangely looked like him was fighting through with a huge lance. The creatures of the sea were no match for the mighty Scottish man. He blushed whenever the mermaid praised him.

Soon, he would learn the name of the beautiful woman. She went by Tiina and Reyn swore that there was someone in the high school that had that name too. It was such a coincidence to see the NPC look like her. Reyn failed to notice how her avatar was leaning close to his and murmuring sweet nothings. The more he learned about her tragic backstory, the more he wanted to help her.

" _I was trapped by a demon monkey."_ She spoke. _"And now she is wreaking havoc in the real world. Please, I must escape and stop her."_

How could Reyn refuse? The mermaid had swam up to the last two options that would determine how the final boss would go. Normally, this game would be difficult, but Tiina had made it to make things easy for the redhead.

The question asked if Reyn would give up his soul. Yes and no were the only options but Tiina had prevented Reyn from saying no. Slowly, he was getting ready to press the button.

"REYN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

It was Shulk's voice that snapped him out of his trance. It was Arachne though that had taken a dagger out from her sleeve and threw it at the wire causing it to malfunction. Reyn would never forget the terrified scream of the mermaid who had vanished when the screen went black.

"H-Hey, what was that for?" Reyn questioned wearingly. He didn't like the look that Shulk or Arachne gave him. "Arachne, I almost won the game!"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dared you to do that." Arachne muttered as she rushed over and grabbed his arm. "We're going home."

"But the game…and the girl…"

"Reyn…please…" Shulk began in almost a whisper. "If you completed the game…you would have turned up dead like Tiina did a few months ago…"

* * *

 **Me: Done with 1564 words.**

 **Li: What's with these horror fics?**

 **Me: Well, it was going to be a funny one involving Axel and Valerie, but I decided to increase the body count in my universe. Notes!**

 **1\. The arcade game is based on a lot of Creepypasta ideas combined with the Genocide route of Undertale. The rumors of you dying for getting to a certain point of the game and losing control of your character is the main thing though and Pac-Man is very aware of this. He doesn't throw the game away because there is someone trapped inside, but wants no one to play the game so they don't become the next victim. Nothing happens if you lose. It's only when you win and the game taunts you to keep playing until you win, but that's when you trade places with the person.**

 **2\. Since Tiina is based on the Little Mermaid, the tragedy motif is apparent. She was bullied into playing the game and tricked by Seiten to complete it. If I had more than 1000 words to work with, I would have added how Seiten lured her into a false sense of security since it took Tiina more than one attempt to do so and she had to pay for money. Tiina wanted to get out as soon as possible and made the game super easy for Reyn. If Arachne and Shulk didn't arrive at that moment, Reyn would be the next victim. There would also be a small note here that Tiina would have a small crush on Reyn and would sacrifice her crush to get out for revenge.**

 **There are so many questions I'm going to leave out in the open in this story. There are only a few AU stories that will explain what is going on. One is Valvatorez/Fenrich centric with Valvatorez explaining what the hell is going on in the first place and the other one is Arachne's eventual break up with Reyn (seeing as how he's thinking of Dark Pit in the college AU). That's it. Reviews are appreciated. Ja ne!**


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